What Is Man, That You Care for Him?
1 By David. Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who trains my hands to war, and my fingers to battle— 2 my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me. 3 Yahweh, what is man, that you care for him? Or the son of man, that you think of him? 4 Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away. 5 Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke. 6 Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them. 7 Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners, 8 whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 9 I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you. 10 You are he who gives salvation to kings, who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword. 11 Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 12 Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace. 13 Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep produce thousands and ten thousands in our fields. 14 Our oxen will pull heavy loads. There is no breaking in, and no going away, and no outcry in our streets. 15 Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.
A soldier's psalm that asks the eighth psalm's question and answers it differently, then prays for full barns.
By David. Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who trains my hands to war, and my fingers to battle—
The opening is the eighteenth psalm's, and the pile of titles that follows is the same: fortress, high tower, deliverer, shield, refuge Psalms 144:2. One is added that does not belong to a fortification — my loving kindness, which is not a thing but a quality, used here as a name.
Yahweh, what is man, that you care for him? Or the son of man, that you think of him?
The eighth psalm's question, asked again. There it was prompted by the night sky and answered with a crown and dominion. Here the answer is different.
Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
The same question, and the collection gives both answers without reconciling them. A human being is crowned with glory and honor, and a human being is a breath — and the difference between the two psalms is what each was looking at when it asked.
Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
The request is for Sinai to happen again, and Isaiah makes the same one in almost the same words Isaiah 64:1.
I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.
Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
The psalm turns, in its last four verses, from lightning and foreign armies to a domestic scene, and the shift is the most interesting thing in it. What the deliverance is for turns out to be children growing up straight, barns with food in them, and cattle that pull.
Our oxen will pull heavy loads. There is no breaking in, and no going away, and no outcry in our streets.
Three negatives, and they define peace by what is absent: no burglary, no deportation, no screaming outside. It is a precise description of what people who have lived without security actually want.
Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.
The psalm says it twice and the second correction is deliberate. The first blessing is on the circumstances; the second is on the reason for them, and only the second survives a bad harvest.
settled What this mark means